Interest in height and velocity information associated with water waves, (ocean waves, sea waves, etc.) has been increasing in recent years as a result of the numerous potential applications of such information (e.g. cargo transfer at sea, helicopter landing, etc.). These applications can use not only instantaneous information, but also the potential forecast of the sea waves and their impacts over short time scales into the future by combining radar measured information with methods for predicting sea surface wave evolution in time.
Object-detection systems, such as microwave radar systems, typically used on ship-based or ground-based platforms have the ability to measure water waves to distances of at least a few kilometers and the ability to provide measurements in most weather conditions. In addition, microwave radar systems configured for X band measuring are already widely utilized for marine navigation.
However, several challenges remain with achieving robust water wave measurements. An existing challenge, is that ship-based or ground-based radar measurements have a “low grazing angle” and at extensive measuring ranges complicates the physics of a surface scattering process. This makes inversion of electromagnetic measurements via microwave radar systems into sea wave information difficult.